"Missionary Mama in the Making": When HE Hears BEFORE I Ask

Have you ever had a prayer answered, before you even prayed it?!? I have and I Lo♥e it when that happens. Except for the part where I feel like a complete idiot for not thinking to pray for it in the first place. The Lord is so good and so kind to give me these gentle reminders. I think they go something like this in my little heart, {you know, in that "still, small voice" that only HE uses},

"Psssssst! Heather! You know that little pesky thing that has been bothering you, not a major issue but annoying nevertheless? Well sweetie, all you had to do was ask me about it and I would have taken care of it for you. But, being your loving Heavenly Father, I decided to help you out this time, even without your having brought it to me yourself. You see, I really do know what is going on in your life, even the little, trivial things. I really do care and want to help you. If you would just ask me; talk to me, I am here, waiting, listening..."

Ouch! Let me tell ya, it's convicting to my very core. I know that this is an area, that in my prideful, young {27 yr. old} flesh, I too often think that I can handle things on my own. I have my little family, with my loving, helpful husband and my 2 little ducks in a row {most of the time!}. I have a great support system in my family and many friends and churches both here in Argentina and back home. I know that they love us and are praying for us. But what about my prayers? Am I doing my part? Am I developing a relationship with my Lord as I should be? I know that He wants to be involved; the most integral part of my day to day life. That's amazing to think about right there; that Almighty God cares about my everyday housewife and mama tasks. Am I letting Him in? Am I begging Him on bended knee for his help everyday? He sure knows that I need it. Sadly, the answer is "No." Far too often my day is off and running, with kids to feed and clothe, etc. and I forget to stop and ask Him to guide me throughout the day. How often do I miss out on other "little" blessings from my Heavenly Father, because I don't go to Him in prayer?

Trust me, I am not trying to "preach" to you. This post is meant 100% for me. I know me and my weaknesses and how much I need the Lord to wrap His loving arms around me and get me through each day. And yet, so often I reject His help that is so readily available by not asking Him for it. He's simply waiting for me to come to Him. Too often I am too busy for my Lord and Saviour. Again, ouch! What a shame and how that must make Him feel. {Sigh of sadness and remorse}

Ok, enough preaching for now. I do want to share with you the blessing that brought all this about. Maybe you remember a recent post of mine in which we took the kids to the park . Well, what you may or may not have noticed in the pics is the sad state of disrepair of the playground equipment. Honestly, it was quite pitiful. This is one of the things that we definitely miss in our neighborhood; there are very few parks, and none of them have decent {safe} things for our kiddos to play on. They are all quite broken down, rusty, super old, or just plain not there!

So, imagine our surprise when just 2 days after we last visited the park, we drove by and saw workers putting in brand-new, up-to-date, really nice plastic playground stuff. WooHOOOO!!! JESUS LO♥ES ME and my babies, too!!! Of course, then we wanted to go back and "test out" all the great new stuff. But, we have had to wait, because last week it was blazing, scorching hot--upper 80*s for temps and 100*-110* heat index. Plus, sky-high humidity! I know, I know, some places are even worse than that. But, let me tell you, that's still waaaaayyy too hot to be dragging kids to the park. Thankfully, since then it has rained and cooled things off quite a bit (almost too much to fast--50*s at night). Beautiful mid 70*s day to take the kids to the park!